Cointelegraph interview: The Bter Hack, The Future and When Is It Okay To Change History?

Popular exchange Bter recently suffered a hack that resulted in more than 51 million NXT being stolen from the exchange, at the time worth more than USD $1.7 Million. This brought up the question: much manipulation of the blockchain is acceptable? While Bter managed to negotiate most of the NXT back into its possession, before that happened the NXT community was presented with a choice: Change the blockchain to reverse the hack and save Bter and the 51 million NXT or allow the transaction to remain and preserve the integrity of the blockchain.

They overwhelmingly decided against changing the blockchain.

Vericoin developer Patrick Nosker, who had to help implement a hardfork on his coin after Mintpal lost most of the Vericoin it heldin a hack, came out against NXT changing their blockchain. NXT Community Manager Bas Wisselink publicly came out against changing the blockchain but agreed that giving the option to the community was the right decision, something some in the community disagreed with.

We decided now would be a good time to talk to each of them about the future of their coins, if each coin made the right choice and the philosophical implications of changing a public ledger.

CoinTelegraph: While most of the Nxt has been returned, before that happened you both came out against the fork in NXT. For the benefit of our readers, can both of you give a quick rundown on why and why it was different than Vericoin’s situation?